Many of the great commentators have come to the conclusion concerning the parable of the woman and the leaven in Matthew 13 that the woman is the Church, the leaven is the gospel, and the three measures of meal represents humanity. Therefore, hiding the leaven (the gospel) in the meal (humanity) means that the gospel will permeate humanity. We quote from Dr. John Peter Lange, “the prince of commentators”: “The woman, the Church; the leaven, the gospel; the three measures of meal, humanity; result-the life from God in its progressive victory over the natural life of the world.” Heubner wrote that this parable shows “the all-penetrating power of the gospel and of its economy, especially of the blood of reconciliation in the death of Jesus.”
We do not quote these servants of God merely to show their mistake, but to indicate how universal is the interpretation that the kingdom of the heavens is the Church. But is it not contrary to all the teaching of the Word of God to believe that the gospel will permeate the world, that the little leaven of the gospel will leaven the whole lump?
Let us look into the meanings of these symbols elsewhere in Scripture.
If you know any orthodox Jews, ask them what leaven stands for. None could imagine it to indicate anything good. Even today the Jew, at the feast of unleavened bread, purges his house of any piece of bread that might contain leaven, that he may not be defiled. The Lord was speaking to Jews, remember, and they knew that leaven symbolized evil.
What does the New Testament teach? Our Lord said: “How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees … but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees” (Mt. 16:11-12).
The leaven then was not good, but evil. Paul wrote to the Corinthians: “Your glorying is not good, know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened” (1 Cor. 5:6-7). Only as they were unleavened could the new life be manifested.
What does meal mean as used in the Word of God? Meal comes from wheat, not tares; the wheat is the good seed. Meal is a symbol of good, not of humanity, in which there is no good thing. In Genesis 18:6-7, when Abraham wished to give good things unto the Lord, and to find favor in His sight, he prepared three measures of meal, and a calf. Meal, in three measures, is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. The three measures of meal in our parable therefore stand for His work, for the Word, which is pure and undefiled.
And who is the woman? Is she the Church? In our Lord’s message to the fourth church, in Thyatira, which corresponds to the fourth parable, the woman Jezebel is not the Church, but the great worldly ecclesiastical organization professing Christ (Rev. 2:18-29).
Now let us look again at the parable of the leaven. “The Kingdom of the heavens (Christendom) is like unto leaven (evil doctrine), which a woman (the great ecclesiastical organizations) took and hid in three measures of meal (the Word as planted by Christ), till the whole lump was leavened (permeated).” Is not that the teaching of the Lord Jesus? Have we not found from history that the evil doctrine of Satanic forces, of Modernism, and of those who do not accept the Word of God in its verity, mixed with the purity of the gospel, attacks in a hidden way that which is good?
There is a warning for us too regarding leaven: “Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (I Cor. 5:6-8). *4